The Dawning of a New Age: Essential Pilsner by City Lights Brewing Co.

Just how many breweries opened in Milwaukee during 2015-2018? I've sampled Gathering Place, Good City, and 1840, and now it's City Lights' turn. I wouldn't doubt that there are even more.

As was the case with Good City, I've seen the beers of City Lights around for a while. But it has usually been their IPAs or another style that holds little to no interest for my tastebuds. And so I basically put them out of mind. Until recently when I decided to try their Essential Pilsner because, well, it's essential, right?

I had a little flashback upon inspecting the can. The label notes that it uses a traditional Noble hop, Saaz, plus a newer German variety, Saphir, that imparts – quelle surprise – fruity flavors. For whatever reason my mind was cast back several years when I approached a national beer writer on Twitter about, if my memory serves, Goose Island's 4 Star Pils. He had mentioned it was not a traditional pils but fruity and, I guess, more IPL-like. I asked him if the label indicated it was a nouveau/American type of pils.

Big, big mistake.

Out of the gate this guy – I don't remember his name so I'll call him Asshole - starts insulting me, basically saying, "Stop being a retrograde pussy and enjoy the fruitiness." Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting joined in with the insults. A couple of exchanges later Asshole then changed the parameters of the argument and I replied that he had just moved the goalposts. Asshole replied that he can move whatever goalposts, whenever he wants to. Cue more har-hars from Kiser.

"What's wrong with wanting ingredients lists on food products?" I asked at one point. Well, I was just stoopid for wanting to be able to look at a beer's packaging and get some relevant info from it before laying down my luchre.

I felt a bit like the guy from 2112 confronting the craft beer priests and being told "Don’t annoy us further!"

Despite the bad social media memories, I proceeded to try Essential Pilsner anyway.

City Lights began pouring their beers in 2017. The brewing happens in an old building that once belonged to Milwaukee Gas Light Co. and so the name. Reading the company's bio, I discovered that City Lights grew out of 4 Brothers Blended Beer Company which I believe was in Waukesha. (So that's what happened to them.) The idea with 4 Brothers was that they offered beer admixtures. Sand Creek up in Black River Falls brewed beers and a "blendmaster" mixed them together. I had their Whipper Snapper, a blend of American wheat, helles, and amber brews, and thought it was good.

Above I noted that City Lights is a newer Milwaukee brewery like Good City. Their pilsners have something in common as well. If beers were hair styles, these would be mullets. Some traditional malts and a traditional hop variety (short in the front) and then some fruity flavors courtesy of Saphir hops (long in back). While I am not ideologically opposed to a pilsner with a little citrus here or some melon there, the brewer must be judicious in the use of such hops. Someday the novelty of certain hop flavors will wear off.

Essential Pilsner poured a slightly hazy straw color. (I am unsure why my phone's camera decided to focus on a computer in the background instead of the can and glass in the foreground.) A loose, white head dissipated rather quickly.

Taking a whiff, I was a bit surprised at the fruity aroma emanating from my glass. A prominent pineapple and melon scent wasn't off-putting, just a bit stronger than expected. There was also a little something grassy with a hoppy hint of the floral. Lastly, I caught something like honey. The label noted the use of Saaz and Saphir but it seemed that the latter won the olfactory race.

The first thing I have been noticing lately when drinking beer is the carbonation. My notes say "nicely carbonated" which is a highly unspecific way of saying that it's somewhere between flat and champagne levels of fizz. A little bite comes through in the medium-light body but nothing more. I tasted a little cracker, maybe a little breadiness, and (for the trifecta) a little honey-like sweetness. There's rice in this brew so I shouldn't be surprised at the lack of grain flavors. From the hops there was that pineapple/melon-like taste along with a floral flavor.

It finished dryly with some bitterness and grass taste.

Despite not being a big fan of blatantly fruity hops, I liked Essential Pilsner. Yeah, I wish it had more matiness, but the pineapple-melon taste was fine. What I really liked was the floral flavor and wish it had stepped up from the background. I am not a beer taxonomist but, to my mind, "pilsner" is a bit misleading here. Absent is that sharp, sprightly Noble hop spiciness and in its stead is fruit. I guess this is why the brewery refers to it as a "new-age pils". At least the drinker is given fair warning from the label.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Essential Pilsner with something light such as a bag of Quaker Cheddar Rice Crisps.